GET REEL: An arresting development with FBI movies

Friday

May 12, 2017 at 10:00 AM

Bob Tremblay @BobTremblay_MW

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or been hit in the head by a rock, you’ve seen the Federal Bureau of Investigation, aka the FBI, in the news. The firing of its director, James Comey, by President Donald Trump has become front-page fodder.

But rather than dwell on the negative, this month’s column will accentuate the positive with five films about the FBI where the agents don’t end up in the unemployment line. Note that the following films may not be the five best FBI movies ever made. They just happen to be my personal favorites. In case you’re wondering, I do have more than five, but I only have a limited amount of space.

These films made the list for a variety of reasons. Some are simply superb movies, some are clever, some are guilty pleasures and some are funny, and who thought the FBI could be funny? J. Edgar Hoover would not be amused.

The films are listed in alphabetical order.

“DONNIE BRASCO” (1997) – This is one of the superb films, and a clever one, too. Based on a true story, the movie focuses on the relationship between a jewel thief, Donnie Brasco (Johnny Depp), and a hitman, Lefty Ruggiero (Al Pacino).

Lefty brings Donnie into a Mafia crime family unaware that Donnie is actually an undercover FBI agent. What will happen to Donnie if his real identity is exposed? And what will happen to Lefty if that happens? A trip to Disney World is unlikely. Complicating matters is that Donnie and Lefty become pals, creating a moral dilemma for the agent.

Directed by Mike Newell with a screenplay by Paul Attanasio, the film, based on the book by Joseph D. Pistone, was nominated for a best screenplay Oscar.

Much of the pleasure from watching this movie can be derived from the performances of Depp and Pacino. They’re in top form. Forget about it? I don’t think so.

“FACE/OFF” (1997) – Whoa, another film from 20 years ago. What a coincidence. Anyway, this is one of my guilty pleasures. Even the film’s title is worth a chuckle as characters played Nicolas Cage and John Travolta exchange faces and, thus, identities. Sorry, it’s not a hockey movie.

Travolta is Sean Archer, an FBI special agent, and Cage is Castor Troy, a homicidal maniac with terrorist tendencies.

Archer requests a face transplant to find out the location of a bomb that Troy has planted. Troy isn’t talking as he’s in a coma so Archer, as Troy, tries to get the information from Troy’s brother.

Matters become complicated – don’t they always? – when Troy wakes up from his coma and gets Archer’s face. Don’t ask. Now the two get to play their polar opposites unbeknownst to those close to them.

Preposterous? Of course, but who cares? The fun here comes from watching Cage and Travolta switch roles, drive up the body count and eventually engage in - wait for it – a faceoff.

Directed by action master John Woo with a screenplay by Mike Werb and Michael Colleary, the film received an Oscar nomination for best sound effects editing (Mark Stoeckinger).

The two are ordered to bring down a mobster, but will they be able to accomplishment this task before they kill each other?

Anyone familiar with this genre’s formula knows the two will be eventually become friends but even this yields laughs. The bar scene alone is worth the price of admission or, these days, a Netflix rental.

Bullock and McCarthy make a great comedy team.

The film was penned by Katie Dippold and directed by Paul Feig, who also directed McCarthy in “Bridesmaids,” “Spy” and “Ghostbusters.”

No Oscar nominations here, but “The Heat,” with a $43 million budget, grossed a cool $230 million worldwide.

“SICARIO” (2015) – Care for a little complexity in your thriller? How about a movie that paints its plot and characters with dark shades of gray, where the lines between good and evil become seriously smudged?

The film stars Emily Blunt as Kate Macer, an idealistic FBI agent chosen to become part of a task force to do battle with a Mexican drug cartel.

Let’s just say that not everything goes as planned and not everything is it appears. That goes for the characters, too, with Macer stuck precariously in the middle.

Directed by Denis Villeneuve, the film was nominated for three Oscars: best cinematography, best original score and best sound editing.

Taylor Sheridan’s taut script should have been nominated for best screenplay. For this omission, the Academy must have been on drugs, probably supplied by the cartel. Sheridan also penned last year’s equally riveting “Hell or High Water.”

“THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS” (1991) – The Academy had no trouble bestowing honors on this film as it become only the third movie, after “It Happened One Night” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” to win best picture, best director (the late Jonathan Demme), best actor (Anthony Hopkins), best actress (Jodie Foster) best adapted screenplay (Ted Tally)

And it deserved every one of those awards.

Based on a novel by Thomas Harris, the film follows FBI trainee Clarice Starling (Foster) as she tries to track down a serial killer nicknamed “Buffalo Bill” (Ted Levine), who has developed a nasty habit of skinning his female victims. To help her catch “Bill,” Starling interviews another serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Hopkins), who has been jailed for chowing down his victims. With some fava beans and nice Chianti, of course.

During these interviews, Lecter plays mind games with Starling, who has to decipher his clues if she’s going to catch Bill before he skins his next victim.

These conversations provide much of the film’s meat, so to speak, with Hopkins and Foster playing a diabolical duet of words.

The film also contains a fabulous misdirection scene while kudos should also go Levine for playing perhaps the first psycho with sewing skills.

Trivia fans will know that Lecter had previously been played by Brian Cox in 1986’s “Manhunter.” Prequels and sequels followed “Silence.”

As for the previously mentioned Comey, one can bet that a screenwriter - or two - somewhere is writing the former director’s story, though they might want to wait to see what happens with the investigation. Working title: “To Russia With Hate.”

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